Blackburn move up to the heady heights of seventh in the table as they make short work of another pretty but ineffective display from Roberto Di Matteo’s West Brom. Here’s the notes from Sunday’s single encounter…
Steve Kean made two changes to his Blackburn lineup, handing starts to new signings Roque Santa Cruz and Jermaine Jones. Ryan Nelsen sat out with a knee injury, while Mame Diouf dropped to the bench. Jones came straight in at left-back, with Gael Givet shifting to partner Chris Samba in the centre of defence.
Junior Hoilett’s performance, epitomised by a superb strike for his first Premier League goal, was the highlight of a routine 2-0 win for Rovers. The Canadian striker looks to have cemented his starting role with a string of impressive showings, prompting Steve Kean to single him out for praise. Hoilett rightly earned him the maximum Fantasy Premier League (FPL) Bonus from yesterday’s game.
Hoilett, picked out in Big Dunc’s “Spot the Differential” on Saturday morning, is available for just 4.0 in the FPL game – only Marlon Harewood at 3.9, can be found cheaper amongst the Forwards. It’s unfortunate that Hoilett’s stock is rising at a time when having 3 top tier strikers in a 3-4-3 looks to be the preferred formation in the FPL; Hoilett would make a strong option as a cheap bench striker for those looking to keep faith with a regular 3-5-2 in the FPL.
The Blackburn defence kept a first clean sheet in 8 games with Paul Robinson playing a big part in preserving their lead. Jermaine Jones was also praised by Steve Kean post-match, having made his debut in the Rovers back four.
“His passing and the way he kept the ball for us as well was fantastic. He was a £10million player before his last injury and, with his performance today (Sunday) and another couple of games under his belt, I think he’ll be fantastic for us.”
In truth the American was fortunate not to have conceded a penalty having cut down Peter Odemwingie in the box only for referee Mark Clattenburg to adjudge the challenge to have occurred outside of the box, much to Di Matteo’s frustration.
As for West Brom, they continue to play good football without reward. Their slide down the table is beginning to alarm with 6 defeats in their last 7 league matches. Fortunately for them, fixtures do at least hand them a route to escape the slump (WIG mcy WHM WOL). The Baggies have three home games in four and a double fixture in Gameweek 27 that may even earn attention for the likes of Chris Brunt and Peter Odemwingie. That pair continue to be the most likely to Roberto Di Matteo’s men, dominating in terms of influence and goal threat. Jerome Thomas also showed up at Ewood Park however – he looks to be carrying strong form into that run of home fixtures.
The own goal from Gabriel Tamas for Blackburn’s opener marked an unfortunate double for the Romanian against Rovers. Tamas also got sent off in the reverse of this fixture last month making them very much his bogey team having scored -2/-1 against Rovers this season.
Di Matteo was able to welcome back Jonas Olsson to his starting lineup after he’d missed a long spell with an Achilles injury, followed by a suspension. His return allowed Paul Scharner to shift into midfield to replace the injured Graham Dorrans who had an ankle problem.
